


Pevensies and Plantagenets

by AdaptationDecay



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Gen, Golden Age (Narnia), Growing Up, Historical Metaphors, Royalty, Siblings, The Wars of the Roses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-31
Updated: 2014-07-31
Packaged: 2018-02-11 04:52:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2054346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdaptationDecay/pseuds/AdaptationDecay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Running a country is complicated enough when you're a grown up who's lived there your whole life and are the same species as your subjects. The Pevensies don't have that luxury.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pevensies and Plantagenets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/gifts).



Edmund had, somewhat foolishly, assumed that the hardest thing about ruling would be persuading the Narnians not to treat them like children.

In fact, the Narnians had done nothing of the sort. As a result of the Witch's spell no Narnian had seen a human being in generations and precious few had any firm idea of what grown men and women were supposed to look like. And of course in Narnia there are so many different animals from tortoises to mayflies that they are quite used to determining by maturity, rather than size or age, whether a person is a grown up.

All of which, Edmund learned, made things worse, rather than better because it meant that the four of them didn't dare _be_ children. At least not anywhere they might be seen.

They talked about it in private on one of the first evenings at Cair Paravel. Lucy - who was still too young for boarding school - had not yet learned about The War Of The Roses and Edmund was gloomily telling her about all the things that went wrong for the Plantagenets whenever child rulers took the throne. He had just begun to recount the fate of the princes in the tower, when Peter interrupted and ticked him off for trying to scare Lucy. Then without quite meaning to, they ended up having a rather sharp argument about Louis the 14th and whether he was a good child king. Neither Peter nor Edmund was prepared to back down and both appealed to Susan. She correctly guessed that one of them was mixing up Louis the 14th with Louis the 15th, but said that she didn't know which of them was making the mistake. In the end, Edmund had said in rather a temper that he'd got a jolly good mind to ride out to Lantern Waste, go back to our own world and check the answer in one of the Professor's books. He might have done just that if Lucy hadn't clung to his hand and said what if the wardrobe closed up and he couldn't get back? Shouldn't they ask somebody here insead? Then Susan had quietly pointed out that with Aslan gone, the four of them were now the highest authority there was in Narnia, which made Edmund feel a bit sick and for a moment he was pretty sure they were _all_ thinking about running away to go back home.

He wondered to himself what would be worse: going back to the house and finding that the wardrobe had closed behind him or travelling out to the lamppost and finding he couldn't get back at all.

That night he heard Lucy crying to herself in her room.

***

By the end of the first week, the refugee problem was becoming pressing.

None of the children had quite realised just how long the Witch's false winter had lasted or how long some of the statues had been in her house. Mr Tumnus whose neat little home had been smashed by the wolves was actually one of the fortunate ones. Some of the re-awakened statues had returned home after the battle only to find that their houses had been torn down for firewood during the long winter or had been taken over by other families, who had by now been living there for generations and naturally felt that the house was theirs.

It was impossible to sort through all the complicated claims with the speed required and every day more and more displaced Narnians made their way to Cair Paravel and set up camp beyond the gatehouse, until gradually it looked as if an army was besieging the castle. (Indeed, some of the tents were the same ones that Aslan's army had used when they were making camp at Beruna a week or so before.)

"We really must do something," said Lucy as she and Peter stared out at them from an upstairs window. "It looks as though we're being invaded."

"If we don't come up with something soon," said Peter, "it may come to more than looks. They must be jolly furious."

"Why don't we ask them all to stay in the castle?"

"It's no more comfortable in here than out there in this lovely weather," said Peter and it was true that the spring so far had been very fine and dry. "They want homes of their own to live in."

"Edmund's doing his best," said loyal little Lucy. Edmund had volunteered to hear the displaced Narnians' cases: listening carefully to both the former statues and their descendants, trying to work out to whom the property truly belonged. It was making him very tired and cross, but only afterwards when he was in private. His words in public had been careful and considered. So far no Narnian had attempted to appeal his judgment once it was pronounced. The only difficulty was that the process took so long and that there was so much else to be done that his brother and sisters weren't free to help him more.

"He's been wonderful," agreed Peter. "If only he didn't take so long. I don't know what else there is to be done without having more houses or fewer people."

"Fewer people?" Lucy frowned. "You won't send them away will you? Like Ferdinand and Isabella?"

"Of course not, Lu. What do you take me for?" Peter said, privately resolving not to let Edmund talk to her any more about medieval history. "We need to build more houses, that's all. I'm just not sure how we're to manage that. The refugees are absolutely worn out and all the volunteers seem to want to do is seek out the remnants of the Witch's army. There's no glory to be earned in building houses."

Lucy was never sure afterwards if it was the work of Aslan or just good fortune that meant she happened to look at Peter's sword just then. A ray of sun was falling through the window and hitting Rhindon's golden hilt, with the result that all of a sudden she felt as if she were back on the grass by the Stone Table listening to Aslan's rumbling voice say "Rise up, Sir Peter Wolf's-bane."

"There could be glory in building," said Lucy happily. "You decide what earns honours now."

***

It was a fine spring afternoon and the reign of the four kings and queens was not yet two weeks old.

An account had made its way to Cair Paravel that a wer-wolf - a remnant of the Witch's army - had been sighted in the area near the mouth of the River Shribble, with the result that Peter had naturally ridden north to seek it out and fight it. 

Susan was inland visiting the building projects that had begun to spring up all over. Peter had decreed that those who used their skills to create homes for the refugees would be inducted into the Order of the Lion. A great many dwarfs would soon earn the right to be called Sir and a great many of the former statues would soon have homes of their own. Edmund, in the meantime was still hearing cases as quickly as he dared and spending many hours in the Great Hall listening to petitioners.

All of which explains why, on the day the Archenland delegation arrived, only Lucy was there to greet them.

She arrived at the courtyard by the gates, quite breathless from running and surprise. Lucy, you see, had made a mistake. She had assumed that the world she was in was called Narnia and that Narnia was the whole of that world. This wasn't true and as the warm spring had continued, the mountain passes to the south had unfrozen, allowing passage into Narnia on foot from the southern kingdom of Archenland for the first time in over a hundred years.

Lucy had been in the solar with Mr Tumnus, who was teaching her to play chess, when the trumpets had sounded. At first she'd thought it was Peter coming back and had run happily down to the gatehouse to greet him only to be confronted by three armoured men on horseback.

If she'd had a moment to collect her wits, she could probably have mustered a greeting more suited to the occasion, but I'm sorry to say that she felt somewhat overawed and only managed to say how'd'y'do in a rather small voice.

The man in front, who had enormous whiskers, leaned forwards and spoke in a most disagreeable voice.

"Hail little maid. Fear not. Thy diffidence is natural, for you stand before royalty."

Lucy felt just as uncomfortable as you might expect upon hearing this. I expect you have at one time or another needed to correct a grown-up and not been quite sure how to do it politely. Lucy, who was only nine, had been a queen for less than a fortnight at this point and did not yet have any royal regalia. In point of fact she was wearing the same blue cotton dress and white ankle socks that she'd had on when the four of them came through the wardrobe. (There were no shops or dressmakers in Narnia and while there were plans to make her some new clothes, other things kept taking precedence. Lucy had spent most of the time so far in the dress she'd bought from England and wearing a rather scratchy shift that she'd borrowed from a dryad when her own clothes were being washed.) Unsure how to raise the subject, Lucy made a small curtsy and wished that Edmund's stories about the Plantagenets had included instructions on how royalty should greet and address one another. She also wished very much that she were wearing her crown.

The second man, who was called Peridan, leaned forwards in his saddle and whispered to the whiskered man.

"I like it not, Barr. This land should be yet unpeopled with men. Belike this is some deep plot of the witch and the girl some apparition."

It was of course, extremely rude of him to have whispered about Lucy like that as if she weren't present, but in fact it was the best possible thing that could have happened, because it meant that she became so cross with him that she forgot to be shy. She flushed indignantly and spoke loudly to the cleanshaven man.

"I'm most certainly _not_! The witch is dead," she said, before adding proudly, "my brother broke her wand."

"Then it's true," said the third and youngest man who carried a furled flag and who Lucy thought might be the others' squire. "The spell is broken and Narnia is free. Give you joy of your kingdom, sire!"

The cleanshaven man smiled at the squire and turned to address Lucy properly.

"Where is your brother? I would thank him for his part in restoring me to my throne."

Lucy bit her lip, then to buy herself some time, said "If you would like to stable your horses, my lords, I can take you to him. I'm sure he'll want to speak to you."

As she led them to the stables, Lucy was thinking hard. Alone and outnumbered, it would have been foolish to reveal herself as queen. She didn't know whether these men formed part of an invading army or what claim they had to the throne. She needed to warn Edmund and the others, but it would be dangerous to leave the newcomers unattended in the grounds of Cair Paravel.

A hawk and a hare who  
formed part of the household were sunning themselves outside the stables and Lucy ran over to them at once. She began talking to the hare right away without any greeting so that neither of them would be able to address her as 'your majesty' and give the game away.

"I need to attend to our guests, can you please go inside with a message for my brother and Swiftwing can you take the same message to my eldest brother and my sister?"

"Of course. What's the message?"

And this was when Lucy had her great idea.

"Just tell them that Perkin Warbeck has arrived."

***

Peridan's claim to the throne was settled by diplomacy rather than bloodshed and a month later Edmund and Lucy formed part of the Narnian delegation to Anvard. After so long in Narnia it felt very odd indeed to be back in a country filled with humans, for Archenland seemed to have no dwarfs or dryads or talking animals at all.

They had been presented to the royal family of Archenland: old King Shar who still didn't seem to understand who they were or where they'd come from, the king's handsome grey-eyed son Prince Lune and his pregnant wife Princess Alisanne who looked very uncomfortable in her formal gown.

The dinner had been wonderful: fresh fish fried in butter and herbs, baked apples filled with nuts and mincemeat, fresh bread with cheese baked into the crust and a sucking pig. Edmund and Lucy ate everything to be polite, but there were so many courses that they began to feel a great deal of sympathy for Princess Alisanne and her uncomfortably swollen belly.

During the meal a minstrel had played on an instrument a little like a lute and sung a series of ballads to entertain the company. They'd heard the tale of Fair Olvin who fought the giant Pire and won the heart of the Lady Liln. They heard the tale of King Ambrose, who was shot in battle but who was so loved by the naiad Peony that when she cried over his body the wound healed itself as if by magic. They even heard the tale of King Frank and Queen Helen, who arrived from another world to rule Narnia. (And you can be sure that the Pevensies pricked up their ears upon hearing that!)

It wasn't until after the food and the songs that Lucy began to notice Edmund was upset. He'd pinched some of the tablecloth between his fingers and was rubbing it distractedly, which might have meant nothing, except she'd seen him do just the same thing with the bedcovers at night when he'd been scared. 

She started to pay less attention to the conversation and more to Edmund. There was a funny set to his jaw now, which usually indicated that he was about to lose his temper. Whatever could be the matter?

"--to end up fifth in line to his own throne after all we've invested in Narnia. Still, I'm sure their young highnesses know best."

Lucy suddenly became aware that the king's chancellor, Lord Bar, was looking at her as if he was waiting for her to reply.

"Oh, sorry. I wasn't..."

Lord Bar - who was the moustachioed man she'd first met at Cair Paravel - smiled at her complacently. 

"Not at all. I dare say your young majesty is tired, it being late for one of your years."

Lucy couldn't exactly say that she'd been ignoring him, so she just smiled politely. Edmund on the other hand looked incandescent. He was obviously cross at seeing a queen of Narnia being told that it was past her bedtime and had conceived of some hatred for Lord Bar.

So she wasn't entirely surprised, when the party left the table for the dancefloor, to feel Edmund's hand on her shoulder and to hear him say in a low voice "I'm going to talk to Bar. I need you to bring Peridan or Lune to where they can hear our conversation without Bar seeing them."

"But why?"

"I'll explain later, but honestly Lu, it's frightfully important."

And indeed, Edmund looked awfully flushed and upset in the lamplight, but he shook himself and called out "Lord Bar, could I have a word with you, sir?" So Lucy hurried off on her own mission.

It took an awfully long time for Lucy to manoeuvre Prince Lune over to the balcony where Edmund had taken the chancellor by asking him awkward questions about the wall hangings. She wasn't attending to his answers at all and it was a relief when the sound of raised voices from outside became noticeable.

"--to sit there and smile and tell us to our faces that you provided aid to Narnia during the Winter? When for the last month I've sat and listened to Narnian after Narnian talk about the last years of that winter. When the help stopped coming. All those families who had to watch their children _starve_!"

"You're just a boy. Of course you don't understand. That food was being wasted. The Witch could conjure food out of thin air. Why should Archenland pay the price for something Narnia didn't need."

"Archenland's help was the difference between life and death for hundreds of Narnians and believe me when I say that I understand the true cost of eating the Witch's food far better than you."

"We owed Narnia nothing. You should be grateful we supported you for so long. If we chose to stop, that is not Narnia's business."

Prince Lune strode angrily onto the balcony and Lucy followed him at a run.

"No, but since my lord father was providing you with coin, Chancellor, perhaps you would be so good as to explain what it was spent on instead?"

Bar turned white as milk and began to cough.

"Your highness, the boy is... he is..."

"The boy is a king, Bar, with a proper regard for his country. As have I, so answer me truly. Where is the gold entrusted to you by the crown of Archenland?"

Bar's silence confirmed all of their suspicions.

"The penalty for treason," said Lune in somber tones, "is death."

Lucy squeezed Edmund's hand, but he shook it away and began to speak.

"Your Royal Highness, in the land where we were born there was once an old king who was deceived by wicked and corrupt advisers like this man. A wise man convened something called The Good Parliament to root them out and all of the embezzlers were stripped of their titles and riches, _but they weren't killed._ Eventually some of them came to serve their country truly."

"You would spare his life?"

Lune looked amazed. Even Bar looked amazed. 

"I believe in second chances," said Edmund, simply, and slipped his hand into Lucy's. 

She had never felt so proud of him.

***

The next time Prince Lune met with the Pevensies, he was a father, for Princess Alisanne had given birth to twin baby boys. Lucy and Susan both claimed they could tell them apart. Edmund thought they both looked exactly like the Prime Minister of England, but didn't say so. Peter's practical suggestion had been to label them, so each young prince had been given baby clothes with his own name stitched onto them in gold threa as a gift.

They'd been bought to Narnia so that Dalewind, the centaur, could tell their future. They'd stayed another week so that Princess Alisanne could rest for the journey home, although a messenger had been dispatched back to Archenland with the news about the boys' exciting futures... well, one of them.

"It just seems jolly unfair on Corin, that's all," said Edmund. "He's got to grow up knowing Cor's going to save Archenland _and_ become king!"

"Cor is eldest by a full twenty minutes. Or are we to countermand the will of Aslan in such matters? Have a care how you answer, Your Majesty!" Lord Peridan asked, but it was clear he was joking.

"Why if you--"

What Susan was about to say would go forever unheard, because at that point there came the sound of a baby crying. Not from the guest apartments upstairs where it should have been, but from outside near the stables. 

Without a word, the whole party got to their feet and ran outside. They were just in time to see the moustachioed face of Bar come flying from the stables on Prince Lune's charger, holding a baby in one hand. 

Susan, who had snatched up her bow as they ran out, had an arrow on the string, but Peridan called out "Nay, he would drop the babe. We must give chase and bring him to bay."

Peter seemed to have had the same thought for he had already run into the stables, but a moment later he was marched out again by a man holding a knife to his throat. 

"If any of you try to enter these stables, to follow that baby or even to get too close," said the man conversationally, "I'll cut the High King's throat."

Susan's arrow remained on the string, but the man was in a crouch, sheltered behind Peter, and there was no way to hit one and not the other. 

Edmund held up his hands in a conciliatory manner. 

"Your master has asked you to stay behind and give him a chance to get away. I understand," said Edmund. "But the thing is your master was given his chance already."

And then Edmund did a curious thing. He addressed his brother and sisters but he didn't use their names. Instead he looked at Lucy and said "Peony?" and her hand flew up to her neck. Then he looked at Peter and he said "Ambrose?" and Peter grimaced. Then he looked at Susan and didn't say anything at all. He didn't need to. Susan had grasped his plan at once and, biting her lip, she loosed her bow. The arrow went through Peter's left shoulder with a wet 'thock' and hit the man behind. They both tumbled to the ground.

What happened next was all rather a blur. Peter cried out in pain. Edmund ran forward to take the man's knife from him. Lucy pulled out her magic cordial from its ribbon around her neck and rushed to Peter. Peridan and Lune ran into the stables and in moments they were mounted and chasing after Bar towards the Anvard pass. Princess Alisanne paused only long enough to snatch up Prince Corin before following. Susan, who felt rather sick, had dropped her bow and just kept telling Peter how sorry she was over and over, even though his shoulder was already healed and he was busy helping Edmund to tie up the attacker.

In all the excitement it is perhaps understandable that none of them noticed or thought to remark on what Edmund had said, but it remains a curious fact that from that day on, whenever any of them was unsure what to do, they were far more likely to look for guidance in the history of Narnia and not the Plantagenet kings and queens of our own world.

And if you'd like to know what became of the baby... ah, but that is another story.


End file.
